The last two weekends I have have been at theMILL Fall Retreats. That's right, plural, two weekends. And they were glorious! Amazing worship, major fun and beautiful interaction with God. I love what happens when we create space for Him! The following is a brief overview of the theme of the retreat followed by the rules video and a short recap video. If nothing else, take a look at the rules video...the best rules video we have done yet!
Stopping! Not just taking a nap, but stopping the noise of life. We have such a hard time doing it. I know I do. But it's good for us. We need to stop to rest. We need to stop so we can enjoy what we have. We need to stop so we can quiet the noise. We need to stop because it is a command of God! What...a command? Like an imperative? That's right, it's one of the 10 Commandments. And not even the last one, as if God ran out of obvious commands and He threw it in to round it all out...it is the 4th command. Stop from what you are doing is in the same category as don't make an idol, don't kill, don't commit adultery and don't steal. Take a Sabbath and pause from life is not a lifestyle suggestion. So why is rest such a big deal to God?
I think we get a glimpse in Exodus 20:8-11. God created the world in six days and on the seventh He rested. But how could that be? God can't get tired! Maybe what He is saying is that we need to be like Him. We need to imitate God so we are reminded that we are not God. When I stop I realize that I didn't create the world and it doesn't require me to keep it going. It's part of developing a greater trust in the God who did and does.
Too often we get tripped up by Mark 2:27 when Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Jesus wasn't eliminating the Sabbath but rather addressing HOW we take Sabbath. Maybe He healed on the Sabbath to do more than tick off the religious leaders of His day. Maybe He was saying that health is found in the Sabbath. Take a deeper look at God's perspective on Sabbath found in Isaiah 58:13-14.
"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
Wow! What if that's true? So maybe we don't keep the Sabbath. Maybe it keeps us. The problem is that rest takes work. Hebrews 4:11 encourages us to make every effort to find rest. So I dare you, fight for rest and see what happens.
theMILL Fall Retreat 08 Rules Video
theMILL Fall Retreat 08 Recap Video
See you next year at theMILL Fall Retreat!
The Friday night message will be posted on podcast. To get the other sessions, including breakouts, you can buy the series on theMILL store at www.theMILLonline.org.
Posted by: Aaron Stern | October 23, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Are the messages from PAUSE gonna be podcast?
Posted by: Jim | October 23, 2008 at 08:33 AM